Sawyer was a lead developer on Fallout: New Vegas, which was built entirely on Bethesda's technology, lending credence to his claim. He pointed at the nature of the engine Skyrim is running on and the PS3's architecture itself as the source of the game's issues, though according to Bethesda's VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines, that simply isn't the case.

A user asked Hines on Twitter if he had "any thoughts on Joshua Sawyer's claim that the lag issues are engine level," to which Hines responded that "Josh Sawyer did not work on Skyrim nor this engine and his comments don't reflect how the current tech works."

Furthermore, when another user inquired to Hines if these claims by Sawyer "scare Bethesda," Hines responded frankly, saying "No, it isn't true. He brings up issues we solved long ago."